Have They Ever Built Anything?

The first question every voter should ask when evaluating a candidate

By Brian Hamilton

My dad never graduated from high school. He used to tell me: “Brian, talking ain’t doing.” Despite not having the fancy degrees that many of us hold, my father instinctively knew the importance of action. One of our better presidents, Teddy Roosevelt, used to say: “Get Action.” He was spot on; at least one politician got the big picture. Unfortunately, that was over 100 years ago.

I’ve spent the better part of my life around entrepreneurs. These are the people who wake up early to make sure the floor is swept and the lights stay on. For them, there is no backstop. These people share a common DNA: they have to produce. 

In the current political landscape, many of our representatives lack that DNA. We’ve become a nation led by professional talkers. They’ve mastered the art of the soundbite, the white paper, and the committee meeting. But where is the fruit?

If we want our votes to lead to change, we need to stop evaluating candidates based on their rhetoric and start evaluating them based on proof that they are capable of creating something/anything (not only a business, by the way). Before we cast a vote, we should ask: Has this candidate ever actually built anything? A small business. A local PTA group. A daycare. A farm. A house. Payroll. A school fundraiser. Have they ever taken an idea all the way to reality?

What History Tells Us

Many of the founders of our country were “doers” first—farmers, merchants, surveyors, and soldiers. Their leadership stemmed from lives full of real consequence. George Washington wasn’t a career politician; he was a surveyor and a farmer who understood literally the soil of the country he was leading. Thomas Jefferson was an architect and an agronomist. Samuel Adams was a maltster. These men didn’t just debate the idea of a nation; they built the physical and intellectual infrastructure of one.

Even in the 20th century, leaders like Dwight Eisenhower were defined by action—he led troops in battle. Harry Truman ran a haberdashery before he ran the country. He knew what it was like to lose a business and shoulder that responsibility. These were people forged by experience, not just ideology.

Why Building Something Matters

Building something teaches lessons that no policy paper ever can. When you’ve built something, you understand that success is earned. You learn that resources are finite, that every decision has consequences, and that tradeoffs are necessary. You also learn humility, because the market, the weather, or the customer will correct you quickly if you’re wrong. Being humiliated is a great path to the rarest of things: wisdom. 

People who have built things know what failure feels like. They’ve had plans fall apart. They’ve had to pivot, adapt, and keep going anyway. That kind of experience produces leaders who are pragmatic, less ideological, and far more focused on results.

Contrast that with a system that rewards perpetual talking. In politics today, you can survive indefinitely without ever delivering a result. 

In the real world, you don’t get that luxury. If the daycare isn’t safe, parents leave. If payroll doesn’t clear, employees quit. If the fundraiser flops, the program dies. Reality keeps score, whether you like it or not.

Builders Govern Differently

People who have built something tend to govern differently. They ask better questions. They worry about execution, not just intention. They understand that complexity is real. 

They’re also more likely to respect the people doing the work. When you’ve cleaned floors, hired employees, or balanced books, you don’t treat labor or capital as abstractions. You know that behind every regulation, every tax, and every mandate, there’s a human being trying to make it work.

This doesn’t mean every builder will be a great politician. And it doesn’t mean every career public servant lacks value. But it does mean we should be far more skeptical of leaders whose only product has been words. 

Ask Better Questions

The next time you’re evaluating a candidate, ask fewer questions about what they say they’re going to do and more about what they’ve already done. Within a range, we’ve got a nation run by a bunch of hot air politicians who seem pleasant on the outside but who have never produced anything. Maybe that’s why we are $38 trillion in debt. No common-sense doer would have ever allowed that to happen. 

So, have they ever built anything meaningful that had to survive outside a campaign? 

America doesn’t suffer from a lack of ideas. It suffers from a lack of execution. If we want better outcomes, we should start electing people who know how to produce them.

Brian Hamilton is the founder of Sageworks (now Abrigo), one of the world’s very first fintech companies, which has helped thousands of banks and millions of business owners. He is also the founder of Inmates to Entrepreneurs, an international program that helps justice-involved people start low-capital businesses, and the star of ABC’s “Free Enterprise” TV show.